Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and melted butter.
Add the whipped eggs and beat for 2 minutes.
Mix in the milk and salt.
Sift together the meal, flour, and baking powder, then add to the mixture.
Beat for 1 minute to aerate the batter.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a shallow pan.
Bake until light brown.
Serve hot, cutting into squares.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- White indian meal
- Forms the cornbread's main body and gives it its characteristic grainy texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-based structure so the bread holds together when cut.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the batter rise and turn light and airy.
- Milk
- Hydrates the meal and flour and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Beat for 1 minute to aerate the batter. Beating incorporates air bubbles that expand in the oven and help give the cornbread lift. Overbeating after the flour is added can develop gluten and toughen the texture, so this step should be brief.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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